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Former FS1 anchor and reporter Julie Stewart-Binks became the second woman in a month to file a lawsuit against Fox Sports executive vice president Charlie Dixon, alleging he assaulted her. The lawsuit, filed on Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claims the attack occurred in January 2016 while she was working at the sports network.
Earlier in January, former Fox Sports hairdresser Noushin Faraji also filed a lawsuit against Dixon, FS1, Skip Bayless, and Joy Taylor. Faraji claims Dixon harassed and assaulted her in January 2017, Bayless offered her $1.5 million to sleep with him, and Taylor insulted her “on a personal and professional level.”
In Julie Stewart-Binks’ lawsuit, The Athletic reports, she claims Charlie Dixon pushed her against a wall, pinned her arms and forcibly kissed her following a meeting to discuss an upcoming Super Bowl assignment.
At that meeting, “instead of discussing logistics or his vision for the show, Dixon began berating Stewart-Binks, telling her: ‘You’re not funny, interesting or talented,’” according to the complaint. After telling Stewart-Binks she was “not capable of handling big moments on TV,” Dixon allegedly gestured toward the bar and said: “The only way someone would watch you is if you got on top of this bar and took your top off.” He also allegedly told her: “You’re not hot enough to be a hot girl on TV.”
Dixon later asked Stewart-Binks to come to his hotel room for a beer and to see the view from his balcony. This set off “alerts” in Stewart-Binks’ mind, according to the complaint, but she felt she could not refuse him because he was her boss.
The lawsuit adds, “With her arms forcefully held down and his body pressed against hers, Dixon tried to force his tongue into her mouth.” Keeping her mouth closed, she says Dixon “ignored her, continuing to press against her body and lick her closed mouth. While keeping one of her arms pinned, he moved his other arm from pressing her upper elbow against the wall to her body and towards her chest.”
Stewart-Binks also says she, much like Noushin Faraji claims she did, reported Dixon to a Fox human resources representative, but instead of taking any action, Fox Sports “egregiously made the deliberate decision to protect Dixon and allow a sexual predator to remain an executive at Fox for nearly a decade.” In March 2016, Stewart-Binks was told that her contract would not be renewed.
“I had a different view of what my life would be like than what it is,” Stewart-Binks told The Athletic’s Katie Strang. “And I’m very grateful for everything I have. But sometimes I think … well, what could my life have been had this not happened?”
In response to Stewart-Binks’ lawsuit, Fox Sports told The Athletic in a statement, “These allegations are from over eight years ago. At the time, we promptly hired a third-party firm to investigate and addressed the matter based on their findings.”